Norton, Travel Industry Sign Deal

This comes from the 2/27/04 edition of the subscription-only newletter, "E&E Daily" http://www.eenews.net, forwarded by Scott Silver of Wild Wilderness:

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Norton, travel industry sign deal to increase promotion of park system
Dan Berman, Greenwire reporter
February 26, 2004

The National Park Service will work more closely with the travel industry and various corporations to promote America's national parks and monuments, Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced yesterday.

Norton and Travel Industry Association of America President and Chief Executive Officer William Norman yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to promote the 388 national parks, monuments and historic sites in the National Park System.

While 40 percent of U.S. adults have visited a national park at least once in the past five years, Norton said, the total number of visitors has decreased. Overall, 266 million people visited park system properties in 2003, down from a high of 287 million in 1999, according to the Park Service. The Blue Ridge Parkway was the most visited unit of the park system last year, drawing over 18 million people.

However, a TIA-commissioned survey released yesterday states that 93 percent of travelers were happy with their visits, demonstrating the appeal and quality of the park system, Norton said. The survey was conducted by the Delaware North Companies, which holds concessionary and other contracts at many famous parks including Grand Canyon, Sequoia, Yellowstone and Yosemite.

"Our National Park System is the envy of the world," Norton said. "This unique partnership with the travel industry will help bring about additional opportunities to educate and inform the public about the many magnificent opportunities America's national parks and special places have to offer our visitors."

One visitor apparently satisfied with his experiences in national parks is President Bush, who has visited 19 park system areas since he took office in 2001, likely the most of any president, Norton said. In comparison, former President Clinton only visited four parks during his eight-year tenure, said Park Service spokesman Dave Barna. Of Clinton, Barna said, "we were pitching him as an environmental president, but he was not an outdoorsy kind of guy."

Interior and TIA want to promote visitation to lesser-known parks like the Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Site in Brownsville, Texas, and the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site in Danville, Calif., Norton said. Among the major components of the "See America's National Parks" campaign is a new Web site (www.SeeAmerica.org), a national sweepstakes, a video e-mail produced by the Travel Channel, and domestic and international advertising inserts.

Some critics, however, worry the Park Service is going too far in terms of promoting America's public treasures as commercial destinations. Scott Silver, executive director of Wild Wilderness, an organization which opposes user fees for public lands, said the Park Service has lost its way.

"It is the effort of Gale Norton and ideologues who are promoting privitization to stuff people into the parks and gift shops and get them to buy more park passes," said Silver of the partnership, blaming such promotional efforts as the reason people are staying away from many parks.

"The reason visitation is not going up is because they are managing the National Park Service as tourist traps," Silver said. "They're killing their golden goose."

Earlier in the day, Norton drew flack from members of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee over marketing deals the Park Service has made with the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, American Express and Folgers to raise money to pay for security improvements to the Statue of Liberty, which has been closed to the public since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) characterized the deals as part of a possible "crass commercialism" of national monuments in the United States. "It's not becoming of us, and it sends the wrong kind of message about who we are" as a country, Hinchey said.

Individuals and corporations have pledged or given $5.6 million for improvements to the statue, according to the foundation's Web site, but the foundation now estimates the development phase will cost $7 million. Asked by members how much Interior estimates the improvements will cost, Norton declined to name a figure or say when the statue might reopen. Aside from increasing security on Liberty Island -- which is open to tourists -- and the statue itself, Interior wants to make safety improvements such as meeting fire codes and installing emergency exits, Norton said.

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Scott Silver
Wild Wilderness
248 NW Wilmington Ave.
Bend, OR 97701

phone: 541-385-5261
e-mail: ssilver@wildwilderness.org
Internet: http://www.wildwilderness.org

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